Caught Up! - Sleigh Bell BOM, BCS Mystery Quilt and Westalee Sew Steady Class

I have been busily trying to catch up with my BOM's (Block of the Month) quilts. It has been an arduous task but I am trying to do a little at a time since I signed up for additional BOM's for this coming quarter!  I can't say NO!  The quilts are so beautiful!  I will tell you about them in future posts.

I have to tell you that I signed up to learn how to use rulers and templates through "Westalee Sew Steady."  We had our first meeting last month, January 18.  It was amazing and fun to see the possibility that I could actually quilt my own quilt that isn't just "stitch-in-the-ditch."  The one hilarious thing that I experienced that day was that I didn't know how to drop my feed dogs!  I had never done that before on my sewing machine!  It was fortuitous that I brought my manual and had to read-up on how to do that.  I only brought the manual to figure out which way to turn the tension dial.  Do I turn it right or left? 

The Border Creek Station (BCS) Mystery Quilt is fun.  We follow directions that are given to us every month (third week-Wednesday) and make blocks that will eventually turn into a quilt.  We also receive recipes and additional suggestions for quits.  I have done none of them but they look easy to do.  Anyway, here are two examples that we did this month.  This is an 8 month BOM.  We just finished the 5th month installment.  

2 1/2" x 4 1/2" - Flying Geese

Ohio Star - 8 1/2" x 8 1/2"

I just finished this block last night, Peppermint Candy.  It is the 7th month block of the Sleigh Bell Quilt.